Virenque cleared on supplying

French cycling star Richard Virenque was cleared yesterday of helping to supply doping products to his former Festina team during the 1998 Tour de France.

The court ruling in Lille followed a French prosecutor's recommendation that there was no proof that Virenque, 30, who finally admitted taking drugs in October after denying it for over two years, was behind organised doping within the Festina team.

However, former Festina physiotherapist Willy Voet, who sparked the initial investigation after he was caught with Erythropoitein (EPO) and other performance-enhancing drugs at the Belgian border on his way to the 1998 Tour de France, was handed a 10-month suspended sentence and a 30,000 franc (£5,225) fine.

Former Festina team chief Bruno Roussel received a oneyear suspended sentence and a 50,000 francs (£8,128) fine.

After the verdict, Virenque, five times King of the Mountains at the Tour de France, said he was satisfied with the result.

"It's the end of a long case, over two and a half years long. I'm happy for me and my family. But I'm still waiting on the decision from the Swiss federation which will come next Friday ," he said.

Virenque faces possible suspension from the Swiss federation, where he is licensed to cycle. "I fear that that will be another case," he added.

Voet, who described his former relationship with Virenque as like father and son, said he believed the French cycling star would have received a harsher treatment if the case had been judged outside France.

Roussel, meanwhile, said the trial verdict would have a negative impact on cycling. "This will not be the last doping scandal in cycling. The verdict was fair, but we've forgotten one thing: individual responsibility.

"The policy of Marie-George Buffet (French sport minister) is one which extols the responsibility of the individual. How can you say sportsmen and women are victims when they have their own choice to say yes or no to doping?

"In Italy the law takes into account cheating in sport. It would be a good idea to introduce that notion to France."

Virenque, the most high-profile defendant in the Tour de France doping trial, claimed he took stimulants simply to "be part of the team".

"I was like a sheep and if I had strayed out of the flock I was finished," he told the court. "I just went with the flow."

The trial against 10 defendants was the culmination of two years of accusations and counter-accusations in France over drug-taking among professional cyclists that has shaken the sport to its foundations.

The scandal became known as the "Festina Affair" after the Andorran-registered watchmaking company which sponsored the Franco-Spanish team taking part in the Tour de France when the scandal broke.